Turquoise Mountain and Beacon Hill

Las Cruces District BLM

(map link)

I arrived back at the Continental Divide Trail kiosk along NM-9, this time directing my attention to the south of the highway. Multiple people were moving around and it looked like someone was resupplying the water in the cache box. I passed three hikers before I'd even felt properly on the trail, which weaves a little with a dirt road before heading south. It was fairly distinct for a lot of the way.

A kiosk on the other side of the fence marks the spot where the CDT crosses NM-9.

The tiny, but eye catching plains flax was the first flower of the day.

The feathered dalea presented likely the most flowers overall.

I passed a few more people as I crossed the not-quite-flat flats. There's actually a small hill down and then I gradually found myself to be in washes of varying frequency of water occupation.

The trail traverses a few ditches before dropping into the wash-like area. Turquoise Mountain is part of the short stuff up ahead. Hachita Peak is behind it.

The dwarf desert peony certainly has an interesting look to it.

The ephedra is not actually a flowering plant.

Long about the 8th hiker, I exclaimed that I must be lost, transported to the PCT when I thought I was on the CDT. She said there were about 10 of them altogether from the same shuttle ride and still pretty clumped up. She congratulated me on being almost done, no great feat since I was only day hiking. We talked about flowers, small but numerous. She pointed out a grass that's supposed to be special, but couldn't recall why. This is when I committed a faux-pax. I asked if I should add it to my iNaturalist collection and her companion exploded. "Not another one!" as he ran off a few steps. I have many collections. Today my main target is to add to my peak collection. At the end, I'd add one to my found geocaches collection. He wasn't entirely swayed.

Native fluffgrass. Wikipedia says that it is "often enveloped in masses of cottony fibers; these are actually hair-like strands of excreted and evaporated mineral salts." That would be cool to see, but is not on display on this bit of last year's grass.

Actually the higher peaks nearby to Turquoise Mountain.

I did encounter two more hikers coming north, the next eager to try some English but not quite understanding, and the last asking where the next water was. He looked like he was calculating when I told him 2 miles, so I asked if he needed some. He went on without. Then I found myself dropping into a proper, often running wash that the trail was following. The bushes along the edge were largely in bloom.

The little leaf sumac is covered with clusters of tiny flowers.

Once the trail was out of the wash again and starting to climb the foot of a hill, I was looking for another trail that would take me to Old Hachita. The map said it was there and would grow into a road after the wash. The trail got as far as the wash, but after all I found were a couple recent ATV tracks after crossing the wash, but it did eventually grow into a bit of road a little past the first prospect I encountered. Occasional mining looks to be the only thing still happening in Old Hachita.

Old Hachita is generally a scattering of ruins.

Lots of little flowers along the dirt, like these chaetopappa.

I found an old CDT marker in the bushes when I met the road through Old Hachita. I guess it was a stop on the trail once, not that the resupply potential was any better than. I headed through town, then off a side road up the little hill beside it that is Turquoise Mountain. It isn't much, but it is just high enough to have a bit of vicious wind blowing at the top.

I left the trail, but seem to still be on the ghost of its past.

Globemallow was getting thrashed by the wind.

At the top of Turquoise Mountain looking back north toward the start.

Bigger mountains to the west. An unnamed one across the wash and Beacon Hill a point in the distance.

Pieces of Old Hachita.

I fought the wind to head over the little mountain to the other side where I could connect with the road again. Originally, I was going to go up another small bump to the south that is also labeled Turquoise Mountain on one map, but I ultimately couldn't be bothered. I headed for the high point of the collection of mountains, across the wash, instead.

Hatchita Peak on the other side of Howells Ridge.

The prickly pears are getting ready to flower, but none so much as this one.

The road I was aiming at had become washed out, but it was there on the other side and got more distinct as I went. The map showed a maze of roads and the ground showed slightly more so that the map wasn't quite a key to it all. I wandered down a wrong one before getting on something climbing to the top again. Up past various mining scars, some quite large, I climbed.

There's the road at the far end of the gully.

Mine shafts, some fenced and some not, mostly mapped, are at the side of the road.

There are three peaks along the top. I walked to them all to make sure, but decided the tallest was the first.

Back along the ridge top toward more peaks. The high point is back there.

The view with some Coyote Peaks to the left.

I headed back along the ridge top, noting that the fluffy grass grows up there, too. I was heading for Beacon Hill, so followed more ridge to another road. Someone had dug a huge hole right in the middle of the road and stuck a plastic fence that won't last the year around it. You could drop a whole truck into that hole. I walked around, as had the little bit of traffic. I wound my way along past a windmill and decided on a route up Beacon Hill since it actually doesn't have roads.

Playas Peak on the right behind Howells Ridge. The road in the distance goes to private property.

The windmill with Beacon Hill behind it.

Looking back on the way up Beacon Hill. Turquoise Mountain is the little thing at the right side of the much bigger peak I had just been up.

I found a few banana yucca blooming near the top of Beacon Hill.

The doves tend to be too fast for me to photograph. The rabbits too.

At the top, I found four posts from, presumably, the beacon that gave it its name. I know there were beacons in the area to help direct airplanes from El Paso once, but there were probably other things it could be too.

The remains of the beacon? Playas Peak is to the left in the background.

Hachita Peak from Beacon Hill, the high point of the day.

The flowers of the banana yucca become white once they mature.

I headed down and connected back up with the roads. They were increasingly unused roads, but the junctions seemed to all be there. I found myself following footsteps down the mountain and along the roads.

Howells Ridge is once more all I can see.

The increasingly unused road.

My road dropped into the wash and where it first got out, I could find and follow, but there was no point. The vehicles that did travel it kept to the wash. I didn't even find the next segment out of the wash. I found the one after that and could almost see the junctions as I followed it high around some old washouts. It was really silly to be following it. It came down in the wash again near a junction with much more use. From there, road following was mostly easy except for the transition over to the current CDT route.

Another remnant of a previous CDT route.

Back to the modern trail alignment of the CDT.

Coyote Hills as the sun gets low.

The sunset.

I had just enough light at the end to find that geocache I was intending to add to my collection and was off.

*photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 1 Jun 2022